Customer Reviews

As the Wonderful World Of Daytime Soap Operas Turns

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I guess I should be flattered that my review prompted YOU to write a review where my name appears almost as many times as the author's. Ha! Are you writing an honest review or just a rebuttal in response to my statements? One would think that when you leave a review on a book you would concentrate on leaving comments in regards to that book and not what someone else said about it. Furthermore, I may have a self-image of being a soap expert, but don't you have a self-image of being *right*, with the only valid opinion? So, please spit out those sour grapes and stop whining so much about ME! Just because I am critical doesn't mean that I don't know anything. Maybe you should try it some time, too. And while I'm on the subject, how objective are you anyway when you say that you know Ms. Vine? We are not reviewing Ms. Vine's sterling character here, but her book. Those are two separate things.

I loved Dorothy Vine's book! I am not sure if noro021 above read the synopsis of Ms. Vine's book.. it seems she was looking for a different type of book...this book is excellent for what it is - a reprint of past heartfelt and honest articles (in various soap opera magazines and New York newspapers) with a some updates on where some of the soap stars are now. I am one of the people she writes about and must say first of all that Ms. Vine has the highest integrity of any reporter I have yet to meet (and I've met many who were great, but she excelled). If the editor changed her words, as they were apt to do, she would call the soap star personally to say that she had not written what the editor added. The book is honest. If noro021 had googled the names she was not familiar with rather than just being critical, perhaps she would have learned something.. noro021 seems to have a self-image that she is an expert and yet is not interested in anything more than the faces she knows currently.

Again, the book is interesting, put together like a scrapbook not like a chronological encyclopedia.. it was meant to be, and is, from the heart of someone who was and still is very close to MANY soap stars of that period.

I highly recommend this book for people who want to know the TRUTH about the lives of the celebrities Vine writes about.

I bought this book because I love to read soap opera articles, especially those discussing trends, themes and the history of the genre. To me, this is a nice enough compilation of articles, but I don't feel it is brilliant enough to deserve a 5 star rating. In certain areas this book should have been better developed and possibly also re-prioritized. To begin with, Vine offers 2006 updates for some articles, but hardly for the majority of articles also qualified for an update. She also gives som general guidelines as to when and where her articles were published, but for further clarification, it would have been really helpful to know the exact date and the name of the publication in which each article appeared (this information could have been included in the articles or in an appendix). The largest section of the book is devoted to articles about soap actors. For those readers who have only heard about some of the actors mentioned, this may be a very boring portion of the compilation (as it was for me). I have been a soap fan for almost 20 years and I have read soap magazines for almost the same number of years, and still I had never heard of the majority of soap actors. Personally, I wish this section would have been downsized in favor of articles with a more general theme pertaining to the soap opera genre (which surely more readers could absorb and enjoy). My favorite articles included those featured in the sections Themes and Roundups, because these discussed various topics of interest such as women on soaps, the art of crying, the genre's history etc. My least favorite section was one entitled Pets. I especially didn't like the articles where animals who had appeared on soaps had been `interviewed' or profiled as if they had actually been able to speak. Some may find it charming, especially if you're a youngster, but here, I just found it to be utterly juvenile and embarrassing reporting. What magazine published these articles anyway? One article (if it could even be called that) entitled Other Soap Actors Who Write, in the Writers section, is so bad that I have no idea why it was even included. It is nothing but a list of soap actors who also write for soaps. Was it really necessary to include this?